Caplan, Butler appear to win school board races

Andrew Caplan and Petra Butler appear set to become the newest members of the Park City Board of Education, if preliminary results from Tuesday evening hold.

Caplan topped Peter Yogman in the District 2 race by getting 56.12 percent (1,118 votes) of the vote to Yogman's 43.88 percent (874 votes), according to the preliminary results from the Summit County Clerk's office. In District 3, Petra Butler earned 53.39 percent of vote (1,142 votes) to best Moe Hickey, a former school board member who tallied 46.61 percent of the vote (997 votes).

The Summit County Clerk's office did not count mail-in ballots that voters submitted Tuesday at drop boxes at polling locations.

Phil Kaplan, who was unopposed, retained his seat in District 1.

Caplan and Butler did not immediately respond Tuesday evening to requests for comment, but Yogman and Hickey both wished their competitors well. Neither indicated that they expected the uncounted main-in ballots to sway the results of the election.

Yogman said it appeared Caplan, who has two young children, benefitted from a strong turnout of parents of school-aged children.

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"I knew that was going to be an uphill battle, and I think they just feel more comfortable and identify with him," Yogman said.

He added that he's confident that Caplan will serve his constituents well.

"I'm sure he'll do a great job," Yogman said. "He's a smart guy, and I'm sure that he will focus and do really well by the schools. And we need the schools to do really well."

Hickey said it seemed voters seemed to latch on to Butler's message of bringing change to the school board. Hickey served on the school board for seven years before relinquishing his seat last summer because he moved out of his district.

"Maybe people still felt the impact of the bond failing and felt that I was tied to that," he said, referring to the school district's bond election that failed by a wide margin last November. "… I think there's a general feeling with people that things need to change on the school board. I don't know that they actually thought about what those changes are on the whole."

He added that he's hopeful Butler's time on the board proves successful.

"I wish Petra well," he said.

In the District 1 race in the South Summit School District, Suni Woolstenhulme (56.40 percent, 313 votes) bested Eric Rose (43.60 percent, 242 votes), according to the preliminary results. In District 2, Dan Eckert defeated Cynthia Card with 54.56 percent of the vote (317 votes) to Card's 45.44 percent (264 votes. Jim Snyder ran unopposed in District 3.

In the North Summit School District, Susan Richins, Mark Marsh and Heather Staley ran unopposed.